Internet fallen over

[esh]

Since 8am, internet keeps going down every minute or so, assigned a junk IP address, changing between gw2, gw4, and ESR8, Milton Keynes.

[Steve]

The only fault presently advertised is 'Faraday' affecting 020 numbers, it should in theory have recently cleared.

[esh]

Completely buggered. When it's up the packet loss is ~30% but it's down almost constantly. Nearly 12 hours now.

[Bill]

assigned a junk IP address

IP removed, just in case.

[esh]

Sorry yes, I was reading the logs incorrectly (I am defaulting to the "no idea" 0.0.0.0 frequently however). I've updated the original post with more information now. The actual problem appears to be exactly the same as a few weeks ago when one of the hostlinks failed, except that doesn't appear to have happened this time. I just keep getting cycled between gw2, gw4, and Milton Keynes ESR8.

[Bill]

OK, I've edited the IP address out in case it is yours

Sounds like a call to support is indicated...

[esh]

The IP I posted was accidentally the IDNET gateway

Yeah, I guess nothing will happen till Monday. Perfect timing as usual Teleconferencing...

[esh]

IDNet support reported no detected faults so I spent the morning ripping random bits of technology out of sockets and cabinets and rearranging furniture as one does. Nothing looked dodgy, but lo and behold, it turned out that the replacement Netgear modem has now also failed. Lesson has been sufficiently learned. All the Netgear hardware has now been reclassified as paperweights and doorstops.

[Steve]

If you just need a modem the Draytek 120 I used for around a year was pretty reliable.

[esh]

Thanks. I have gone back to an (ancient) USR router in bridge mode which I bought back in 2002. It is possibly the best £30 bit of network kit I ever bought (in fact I bought two they were so good). It is imminently configurable and reliable as a brick, so it seems somewhat apt I am now back on it again.

I used the Netgear modem because BT were supposed to be upgrading the exchange here to ADSL2, and the old USR box is only an ADSL1 device. It seems BT have shelved 21CN here though, but it certainly won't hurt to have a more modern modem on standby. I much prefer using a dedicated router, so I shall go and grab one of these Draytek bits of kit... heard good things about the company and I've had no other recommendations for modems.

It was somewhat infuriating that none of the equipment showed obvious signs of failure. Everything pointed towards some problem at the exchange, and of course, when you have some complex network infrastructure set up, you are loathe to rip it all apart.. such is life. The common problem with both the Netgear boxes is that they both got very hot, and the modem made a curious high-pitched buzz. Perhaps it has always been faulty in some manner, but I'll certainly have to think twice before I browse their products again.

[Steve]

There are a couple of issues with the 120,but probably one you encountered with your set up anyway,its difficult but not impossible to get the adsl stats from the 120, it does have a limited DHCP server so a PC connection to the modem will access the menu. Also I didn't manage to get native IPv6 to work but that maybe due to my ignorance.

[esh]

Yeah, getting the stats is a pain. One joy of this router in bridge is that you can plug another system in on a static IP and log into the interface to glance at it. Couldn't do that with the Netgear, but then, once things are up they just tend to run and run... Until obviously they melt and fail  I've yet to experience the wonders of ipv6 as the router product I use doesn't support that yet and it simply sounds more hassle than benefit right now.

[Steve]

I've been playing round with an Netgear WN111 (N usb wireless adaptor) on a Windows 7 machine this am it's normally pretty stable but it's crashed 3 times. Another piece of Netgear equipment consigned to history.

[esh]

I just had an enormous (70%) packet loss spike 21:20 ish. I hope I truly have solved the problem and it's not something else It has been up steady since 9:35 am now though, and the connection didn't drop.... so I definitely fixed something!